When the tills are down...

robbies_gal

everyone should be taught wot to do in these cases and have a quick maths test

my sister is terrible bless her-if the till doesnt do it for her shes completely stuck she failed maths and has never got the hang of it since

vyle

I don't know what I'd do if the tills broke at work. there's no way to manually open the change drawer without power.

Other than that, the prices change so often, i'd never remember them. I'd be fine with the actual maths, I think, but one problem I have is sometimes I get in such a routine that if something happens, my brain totally freezes. I sometimes get it where, if I'm actually on the till (thankfully I'm mainly in sales) and think about what I'm doing I forget how to do even the most basic things. It's strange going from instinct then actually thinking about what you're doing.

The only time I'm bad at the mental arythmatic is when I'm doing a calculation and the person I'm serving (usually a balding old man with glasses) suddenly starts telling me what the answer should be, and I'm like "shut up and stop breaking my concentration." Well I don't actually say that, but I do wish I could hit them with a wet fish or something.

The other problem is that the till requires the item code, for stock take purposes, rather than the actual price, so when someone is sitting there saying "this is £9" it's no good because there are many things that cost £9.

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

I had to leave 6 identical items worth 40p each as the teenage girl who was serving said the till was down and they COULDN'T work out the price people would have to pay.
I would'nt mind but I even offered her the right money.

vyle

MRSTITTLEMOUSE wrote: »

I had to leave 6 identical items worth 40p each as the teenage girl who was serving said the till was down and they COULDN'T work out the price people would have to pay.
I would'nt mind but I even offered her the right money.

Easy!!!

£4.97

Teenie_D

Humphrey10 wrote: »

I wouldn't expect shop assistants to be reasonably well educated. If they were, I'd think they would be doing a more pleasant job where they'd earn more. I can't think of many jobs that require fewer qualifications and skills. The supermarkets near me employ many people with special needs, and many sixthformers and school leavers ie people with no experience.

:mad:

What an arrogant statment!!

Unfortunately these days, and especially in the current climate, people just have to take whatever jobs are available regardless of how well educated they are.

I'm sure many of these people would prefer to be "doing a more pleasant job" but unfortunately that is just not always possible and at least they are willing to work, whatever that work may be!
Some people actually enjoy it believe it or not! :rolleyes:

Do you have a problem with people with special needs being given the opportunity to go out to work? Why should they not be given the chance to socialise and have some responsibility? At least they don't judge people the way you obviously do!

vyle

I've done office work, I've done web administration and yet I find my current retail job infinitely preferable.

I get to talk about technology all day (which I'm very interested in) and get to see the results of what I do first hand, whereas during my office tenure, I never saw any of the fruits of my labour.

I regularly get sent to posh hotels to have three course lunches while companies explain the benefits of their unreleased wares. In my previous jobs, I never got to do anything like that and the staff canteen and coffee shops were overpriced because we were a captive market, while right now, I can get a top notch staff lunch for 80p.

Yes, I'm lucky in that I work for a good company, in a relatively high level role (by retail standards) but while people may consider retail to be a job to be looked down on, I've been in more 'prestigious' roles that required more paper qualifications and while it might be nice to be sitting down all day, I wouldn't trade my job to go back.

Humphrey10

Teenie_D wrote: »

Unfortunately these days, and especially in the current climate, people just have to take whatever jobs are available regardless of how well educated they are.

No they don't.
When I was 23 my CV couldn't have looked worse, low A level grades, dropped out of university after one year due to ill health, a couple of months minimum wage work at Toys R Us.
But that year I was accepted onto a funded university course (engineering) with a paid work placement each of the 2 years of the course, and have just got a job for when my work placement finishes.
If I can get paid professional work with a CV like that, someone with a degree should be able to.

I know so many people who have been bullied by the job centre into giving up with their chosen career and taking the first random low paid job that they are offered. They end up very unhappy. How does that help anyone? With a bit of support, extra training and rewriting their CV they could get a job they prefer.

Teenie_D wrote: »

Do you have a problem with people with special needs being given the opportunity to go out to work?

Did I say I had a problem with it? I think it's great, and I think more places should employ more people with special needs.
The post I was replying to said that shop assistants should be required to be good at maths. I was saying that they don't need to use maths in their job, so why make that a requirement of employees. So many people get ruled out of employment because they don't have a little bit of paper saying they can do this thing or that thing, when the job doesn't even need that skill! I just really don't agree with that.

There is nothing wrong with people working in retail. It's just not everyone wants to do it, not everyone enjoys it, and it definatly does not need much in the way of qualifications.

Teenie_D

I apologise, maybe I read your post wrong but................

Humphrey10 wrote: »

I wouldn't expect shop assistants to be reasonably well educated.

you mean you expect people who work in retail to be thick?

And yes I agree nobody should give up on pursuing their chosen career but in some cases it is not possible and they have to take what is available.

hoyles10

I was in this situation earlier today and ended up leaving my stuff at the till and just walking out before I went mad at the stupidity of the shop manager. The till wasn't working but the girl had used her initiative and started to write down what she had sold, how much it came to so that when the till was working again she could put it all in. It took a bit longer but people didn't seem to mind. Then the little hitler of a manager had a go at her in front of everyone in the shop because it might mess her up when she comes to cashing up at the end of the day and people would just have to wait until the till was fixed by the bloke fiddling with it. I felt so sorry for the poor girl and being in a slightly hungover and tired mood I had to walk out before I had a pop at the manager about the way she spoke to the girl. It's only a small connivence store so I would have thought that keeping sales going whilst the till wasn't working would have been an important part of their business.

On another note about people should be able to add up basic maths themselves, I got marked down in my maths exam and course work for NOT using a calculator. I got the answers right but couldn't put on paper how I had worked it out.

Humphrey10

Teenie_D wrote: »

I apologise, maybe I read your post wrong but................

No need to apologise, my post wasn't very well written really, more of a poorly explained rant.

Teenie_D wrote: »

you mean you expect people who work in retail to be thick?

No I just don't think they should be required to have much in the way of formal qualifications.
Qualifications =/= intelligence.
Lack of qualifications =/= stupidity.

I was annoyed at the post I was replying to and other posts on this thread because of the expectation of a requirement for shop assistants to good at maths or well educated (which I assume means having done qualifications above GCSEs).

Having been a shop assistant, I know the job does not need this, so it should not be required, because if it was it would stop some people who are perfectly capable of doing this work from getting these jobs.